Meet the Poster Child of the Week. As high season approaches, I advise you to stay away from this man, the likely thief of Gringa1's camera. She wrote the story yesterday afternoon on the mysisla.com chat board.
He was also the named suspect in my police prosecutor reports a couple years ago over the taking of my debit card and invoking my overdraft protection to get money I didn't have before I saw it on line some 10 hours later.
Who is this guy? A cocaine addict who calls himself a marijuana addict. But he's been hooked on coke since his teens and now in his mid-40s.
Joshua, really Josue Galvan, was the cook at Hotel Caracol in my early years coming to Isla Mujeres. That was when I didn't speak Spanish and he does speak English. Very well.
I've watched him get fired from every good job he's had on the island due to his coke habit. I thought he had it beat when I hired him two years ago during a really bad MS attack that lasted nearly three months. He would cook and do light cleaning and shopping four hours a day and then he could do his jewelry in my vacant apartment. He lifted my debit card after the employer relationship had ended and he came back to borrow a fan. But he knew my PIN, or as it's called here, NIP.
I figured I wasn't giving him any money, so the chances of a relapse were less. Wrong.
I bring him up not so much for his crimes, but for the risks to people who buy and build here and never learn the language. We have the whisper-case about a property manager . None of her ex- clients have gone public with their stories, but all her clients are now with other property managers. She was married to a Mexican and spoke the language. No one believed they'd be ripped off by a small town American. One property owner alone lost $44,000.
And then we have my conflicted feelings about the rush to reach everyone around here English. Creating a cozy spot for more monolingual people to get ripped off.
My feeling is that if you are going to try to live here, you should learn the language as soon as possible and don't buy until you do know it well enough to hired your own tradesmen and file your own complaints.
I thought I was helping an old acquaintance when I hired Josh. But I also knew he had a history of sticky fingers. As young people say these days, "My bad."
And I really hate living here and seeing more and more people going to the nearly free English school. It's said they'll make more money. But I'm wondering what percent will choose to be con-men? Enough Americans have taken huge losses as it is on the island. Others are paying marked up prices that the bilinguals collect and the workers don't profit.
You want to live in paradise? Learn the language for your own sake. It is the polite thing to do!
Now Gringa, get yourself over to Hotel Bucanero, take the English speaking owner's hand, and go meet the Director of Police.
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You can curse me for this blog or praise me. It doesn't matter. It is just my opinion. But I don't care to debate it.
I've known Ursula for years. She was a manager at Color de Verano when they had the best cafe in town, now turned into more rental suites.
My mind drifted to the sea and occasionally my camera. These were my "Kodak moments."
Ursula was meticulous and gentle. I relaxed into the surroundings and drank herbal tea.
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